Information providing apparatus and system

ABSTRACT

An information providing system is disclosed. The system includes a management apparatus having a database storing facility-event information of facilities or events, and a portable apparatus communicatable with the management apparatus. The portable apparatus sets each place, at which a movement stop time exceeds a prescribed staying time, as a stay place. The management apparatus estimates that a living area of a user of the portable apparatus is a collective area covering all of the stay places of the user. The management apparatus sets the collective area as the search scope, extracts the facility-event information matching the search scope from the database, and transmits the extracted facility-event information to the portable apparatus.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/199,280 filed on Aug. 24, 2011. The present application is based onand claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-194683 filedon Aug. 31, 2010. The entire disclosures of each of the aboveapplications are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus andan information providing system for providing information about afacility or an event to a user.

BACKGROUND

An information providing system including an in-vehicle apparatusmounted to a vehicle and a management apparatus installed to an externalinformation center is known. In the system, the in-vehicle apparatus andthe management apparatus communicate with each other, thereby providingfacility-event information, which is information about a facility or anevent, to a user.

In this kind of information providing system, the management apparatusextracts the facility-event information, e.g., the facility-eventinformation that matches a condition “within a radius of X km from thepresent position”, from a database and transmits the extractedfacility-event information. The in-vehicle apparatus receives thefacility-event information from the management apparatus, and providesthe facility-event information to the user (cf. Patent Document 1 forexample).

Patent Document 1: JP-2008-293102A

Discussion will be given based on findings of the inventor of thepresent application.

In a conventional information providing system, although thefacility-event information corresponding to a facility or an eventlocated near the present position of a vehicle can be provided to auser, it is doubtful whether this facility-event information is usefulto the user because this facility-event information is merely extractedaccording to a distance-based search scope.

Specifically, the facility-event information provided to a user in aconventional information providing system may include information thatis unwanted despite “within a radius of X km from the present position”.Alternatively, the facility-event information provided to a user mayfail to include information that is useful despite “X km or more distantfrom the present position”.

SUMMARY

In view of the foregoing, it an objective of the present disclosure toprovide an information providing apparatus and system that can provideinformation useful to a user in a rational manner, and can have highusability.

According to a first example of the present disclosure, an informationproviding apparatus for providing facility-event information isprovided. The information providing apparatus includes an informationstorage, a present position acquisition unit, a search scope settingunit, an information extraction unit, an information indicating unit,and a stay place setting unit. The information storage stores thefacility-event information of facilities or events while associating thefacility-event information of the facilities or events with respectivelocation data of the facilities or events. The present positionacquisition unit acquires present position information indicatingpresent position of the information providing apparatus. The searchscope setting unit sets a search scope parameterized by the locationdata, based on the present position information acquired by the presentposition acquisition unit. The information extraction unit extracts,from the information storage, the facility-event information thatmatches the search scope set by the search scope setting unit. Theinformation indicating unit provides at least some of the facility-eventinformation extracted by the information extraction unit, to a user ofthe information providing apparatus. The stay place setting unitmeasures, based on the present position information acquired by thepresent position acquisition unit, a movement stop time defined as aperiod of time from when movement of the information providing apparatusstops to when the movement of the information providing apparatusrestarts. The stay place setting unit sets each place, at which themeasured movement stop time exceeds a prescribed staying time, as a stayplace. The search scope setting unit estimates that a living area of theuser is a collective area covering all of the stay places of the userbased on the location data corresponding to the stay places set by thestay place setting unit. The search scope setting unit sets thecollective area as the search scope.

According to a second example of the present disclosure, an informationproviding system for providing facility-event information is provided.The information providing system includes a management apparatus thatincludes a database, the database storing the facility-event informationof facilities or events while associating the facility-event informationof the facilities or events with respective location data of thefacilities or events. The information providing system further includesand a portable apparatus that communicates with the managementapparatus. The portable apparatus acquires present position informationindicating the present position of the portable apparatus, transmitsportable-source information, which is based on the present positioninformation, to the management apparatus, and provides, to a user of theportable apparatus, at least some of the facility-event informationtransmitted from the management apparatus. The management apparatussets, based on the portable-source information transmitted from theportable apparatus, a search scope parameterized by the location data.The management apparatus extracts the facility-event informationmatching the search scope from the database, and transmits the extractedfacility-event information to the portable apparatus. The portableapparatus measures, based on the present position information, amovement stop time defined as a period of time from when movement of theportable apparatus stops to when the movement of the portable apparatusrestarts. The portable apparatus sets each place, at which the movementstop time exceeds a prescribed staying time, as a stay place, andtransmits place information indicating each stay place to the managementapparatus. The management apparatus estimates, based on the locationdata corresponding to respective stay places transmitted from theportable apparatus, that a living area of the user is a collective areacovering all of the stay places of the user. The management apparatussets the collective area as the search scope.

According to a third example of the present disclosure, an informationproviding system for providing facility-event information is provided.The information providing system includes a management apparatus thatincludes a database. The database storing the facility-event informationof facilities or events while associating the facility-event informationof the facilities or events with respective location data of thefacilities or events. The information providing system further includesand an in-vehicle apparatus that is mounted to a vehicle andcommunicatable with the management apparatus. The in-vehicle apparatusacquires present position information indicating present position of thevehicle, transmits vehicle source information, which is based on thepresent position information, to the management apparatus, and providesat least some of the facility-event information transmitted from themanagement apparatus, to a user driving the vehicle. The managementapparatus sets, based on the vehicle source information transmitted fromthe in-vehicle apparatus, a search scope parameterized by the locationdata, extracts the facility-event information matching the search scopefrom the database, and transmits the extracted facility-eventinformation to the in-vehicle apparatus. The in-vehicle apparatusmeasures a parking time of the vehicle, sets each place, at which theparking time exceeds a prescribed staying time, as a stay place based onthe present position information, and transmits place informationindicating each stay place to the management apparatus. The managementapparatus estimates that a living area of the user is a collective areacovering all of the stay places of the user, based on respectivelocation data corresponding to the stay places transmitted from thein-vehicle apparatus. The management apparatus sets the collective areaas the search scope.

According to a forth example of the present disclosure, an informationproviding system for providing facility-event information is provided.The information providing system includes a management apparatus thathas a database that stores the facility-event information of facilitiesor events while associating the facility-event information of thefacilities or events with respective location data of the facilities orevents. The information providing system further includes a portabledevice that is communicatable with the management apparatus. Theportable apparatus acquires present position information indicatingpresent position of the portable apparatus, transmits position-basedinformation, which is based on the present position information, to themanagement apparatus, and provides, to a user of the portable apparatus,at least some of the facility-event information transmitted from themanagement apparatus. The management apparatus sets, based on theposition-based information transmitted from the portable apparatus, asearch scope parameterized by the location data, extracts thefacility-event information that matches the search scope from thedatabase, and transmits the extracted facility-event information to theportable apparatus. The portable apparatus measures, based on thepresent position information, a movement stop time defined as a periodof time from when movement of the portable apparatus stops to when themovement of the portable apparatus restarts, and sets each place, atwhich the movement stop time exceeds a prescribed staying time, as astay place. The portable apparatus estimates that a living area of theuser is a collective area covering all of the stay places of the user,from respective location date corresponding to the stay places. Theportable apparatus transmits area information, which indicates theestimated living area, to the management apparatus. The managementapparatus sets the living area of the user as the search scope based onthe area information received from the portable apparatus.

According to a fifth example of the present disclosure, an informationproviding system for providing facility-event information is provided.The information providing system includes a management apparatus thathas a database that stores the facility-event information of facilitiesor events while associating the facility-event information of thefacilities or events with respective location data of the facilities orevents. The information providing system further includes an in-vehicleapparatus that is mounted to a vehicle and is communicatable with themanagement apparatus. The in-vehicle apparatus acquires present positioninformation indicating present position of the vehicle, transmitsvehicle source information, which is based on the present positioninformation, to the management apparatus, and provides, to a userdriving the vehicle, at least some of the facility-event informationtransmitted from the management apparatus. The management apparatussets, based on the vehicle source information transmitted from thein-vehicle apparatus, a search scope parameterized by the location data,extracts the facility-event information that matches the search scopefrom the database, and transmits the extracted facility-eventinformation to the in-vehicle apparatus. The in-vehicle apparatusmeasures a parking time of the vehicle. The in-vehicle apparatus setseach place, at which the parking time of the vehicle exceeds aprescribed staying time, a stay place based on the present positioninformation The in-vehicle apparatus estimates that a living area of theuser is a collective area covering all of the stay places of the user,from respective location date corresponding to the stay places. Thein-vehicle apparatus transmits area information indicating the livingarea of the user. The management apparatus sets the living area of theuser as the search scope based on the area information received from thein-vehicle apparatus.

According to the above information providing apparatus and system, it ispossible to provide information useful to a user in a rational manner.The above information providing apparatus and system can have highusability.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentdisclosure will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription made with reference to the accompanying drawings. In thedrawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an information providing system;

FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating attribute groups;

FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating an attribute radar chart in amanagement table;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a user information transmissionprocess performed by a controller of a cellular phone;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an information transmission processperformed by a controller of an in-vehicle navigation apparatus;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an information providing processperformed by the controller of the in-vehicle navigation apparatus;

FIG. 6 is flowchart illustrating a real-time information creationprocess preformed by a controller of a management apparatus;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an area information registrationprocess performed by the controller of the management apparatus;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an attribute information creationprocess performed by the controller of the management apparatus; and

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a facility-event informationtransmission process performed by the controller of the managementapparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The exemplary embodiments are described below with reference to theaccompany drawings.

[Configuration Outline]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an informationproviding system 1 according to one embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the information providing system 1 includes acellular phone 10, an in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 mounted to avehicle, and a management apparatus 30 installed in an informationcenter, which may be a facility of an operator (or host) of theinformation providing system 1. The cellular phone 10 is carried by theuser who drives the vehicle.

Next, configurations of the cellular phone 10, the in-vehicle navigationapparatus 20 and the management apparatus 30 of the informationproviding system will be specifically described.

[Configuration of Cellular Phone 10]

The cellular phone 10 of the present embodiment may be a smart phone.The cellular phone 10 includes a touch panel portion 13, in which theinput panel 11 for receiving user manipulation is integrally arranged ona surface of a display panel 12. A typical smart phone of these days hassuch standard functions as a telephone call function, a mail function, abrowser function, and some of application functions (a word processorfunction, a spreadsheet function, an electronic banking function, etc.),and such additional functions as a game function, a camera function, animage editing function, a moving-image-reproduction function, and amusic reproduction function. The above addition functions may furtherinclude application functions. The cellular phone 10 of the presentembodiment is assumed to have the above functions.

In addition to the touch panel portion 13, the cellular phone 10 furtherincludes a controller 15 for implementing the above and other functions,a storage 16 for storing a variety of information, a communicationdevice 17 for wirelessly communicating with the in-vehicle navigationapparatus 20 and the management apparatus 30, and a detector 18 withvarious sensors.

The display panel 12 of the touch panel portion 13, which may be a knownone, displays various images, movies and texts etc. The input panel 11of the touch panel portion 13 receives touch manipulations at placescorresponding to various icons on the display panel 12. An employedoperating principle of the input panel 11 may be a matrix switch type, aresistance film type, a surface-acoustic-wave type, an infrared type, anelectromagnetic induction type, a capacitive sensing type, or the like.

The controller 15 includes a microcomputer with a CPU (centralprocessing unit), ROM (read-only memory), RAM (random access memory),I/O (input/output), a bus line connecting the foregoing components, andthe like. The controller 15 performs various processes according toprograms stored in the RAM etc.

The storage 16 can store various information. In the storage 16, a userID for identification of the user is previously stored. The storage 16has a pre-prepared area for storing function history information. Thefunction history information is recorded by the controller 15 andincludes at least information on: a date-and-time (i.e., a date-and-timeof usage) when a process of performing the additional function isinitiated and ended; and a time of usage of the additional function. Thestorage 16 further stores various keywords, which are associated withthe facility-event information or needed to identify an object of user'sinterest. In addition, the storage 16 further stores specific waveformpatterns, which are pre-set using an algorithm for analyzing someone'sfeelings from frequencies of his or her speech, and which are waveformpatterns when people feels “pleasant” at a high level. This level of“pleasant” is also referred to hereinafter as “a degree of pleasant”.

The communication device 17 includes a short-range wirelesscommunication portion for wirelessly communicating with the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20, and a wide-area wireless communication portionfor wirelessly communicating with the management apparatus 30. Theshort-range wireless communication portion can perform communications ina communication area (area where a short-range wireless communication isperformable) that cover at least all of a compartment of the vehicleequipped with the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20. For example, theshort-range wireless communication portion may use Bluetooth (registeredtrademark), wireless LAN, weak wireless communications, or the like. Thewide-area wireless communication portion can perform communications in acommunication area that a base radio station covers for relayingcommunications with the management apparatus 30. In the presentembodiments, the wide-area wireless communication portion uses wirelessdata communications via a cellular network.

The detector 18 includes a GPS (Global Positioning System) sensor forreceiving a radio wave (GPS signal) from GPS satellites, a speed sensorfor detecting a velocity along three axes perpendicular to each other, agyro-sensor for detecting an angular velocity around three axes, i.e.,roll, yaw and pitch, a geomagnetic sensor for detecting an angle ofdirection in a three-dimensional space from geomagnetism, and the like.The detector 18 detects the present position (location), a movementspeed and the like of the cellular phone 10 while compensatingrespective errors of the above sensors.

Moreover, the detector 18 includes further includes sensors fordetecting temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and luminance,respectively. As well as signals (detection signals) indicating thepresent position and the movement speed of the cellular phone 10, thedetector 18 periodically inputs signals (detection signals) indicatingthe detected values of the temperature, the humidity, the atmosphericpressure, and the luminance to the controller 15.

[Configuration of In-Vehicle Navigation Apparatus 20]

The in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 constitutes what is called anavigation system, which searches for an optimal route to a destinationpoint and provides travel guidance on the route. The in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20 can function as an in-vehicle apparatus. Thisin-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 is used in a state of being mountedto the vehicle. When multiple vehicles use the information providingsystem 1, the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 is mounted to each ofthe multiple vehicles.

The in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 includes a controller 21 forcontrolling generally all of operations of the n-vehicle navigationapparatus 20, a position detection device 22 for detecting presentposition of the vehicle, a manipulation device 23 for receivingmanipulation from the user, a storage 24 for storing various data, adisplay device 25 for displaying various information, a communicationdevice 26 for wirelessly communicating with the cellular phone 10 andthe management apparatus 30, an interface 27 for having a connection tothe cellular phone 10, and a speech output device 28 for outputtingvarious speeches.

Moreover, the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 is connected withvarious sensors in order to detect amounts of various operations whichthe user performs in relation to driving the vehicle. The varioussensors include pressing down amount sensors for detecting amounts ofpress-down of an accelerator pedal and a brake pedal, a steeringoperation amount sensor for detecting an amount of operation of asteering wheel, and the like. In order to detect an activation degreeindicating activeness of user's sympathetic nervous and a pleasantdegree indicating user's emotion in part, the in-vehicle navigationapparatus 20 is connected with physiological sensors for detecting aelectrocardiograph value, heart rate etc., and an image sensor fordetecting the number of times (blink rate) the user blinks, pupil size,and direction of eyes. The physiological sensor may detect theelectrocardiographic value based on an electric potential differencegenerated in response to contact of a right hand and a left hand of theuser with a pair of electrodes, which are arranged along acircumferential direction of a steering wheel. Further, thephysiological sensor may detect the heart rate from a pulse rate basedon a light reception amount change that is generated in response to acontact of a fingertip of the user with a photoelectric element, whichis arranged at a predetermined place on an inner surface of the steeringwheel. To detect user's breathing rate, the physiological sensor mayinclude a sensor to be placed in the vicinity of a nose or a mouth ofthe user.

The controller 21 includes a computer with a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, an I/Oand a bus line connecting the foregoing components. The controller 21performs various processes according to programs stored in the ROM, anexternal storage device or the like. The controller 21 performsnavigation-related processes such as, for example, a map display processfor displaying a map on the display device 25 based on map data storedin the storage 24, a route retrieval process for retrieving an optimumroute from the present position to a destination point, a travel routeguidance process for performing a travel guidance along the retrievedoptimum route via the display device 25 and the speech output device 28,and the like. Further, the controller 21 performs a process foracquiring information about a user available facility or event from themanagement apparatus 30, and providing the information to the user. Theinformation about a facility or an event is also referred to as“facility-event information”. Details of this process etc. will bedescribed later.

The position detection device 22 includes a GPS receiver for receivingradio wave from GPS satellites via a GPS antenna to detect the positionetc. of the vehicle, a gyroscope for outputting a detection signaldepending on angular velocity of the vehicle with rotation motion, aspeed sensor for outputting a detection signal depending on speed of thevehicle, and the like. Since the GPS antenna and the above sensors haverespective errors different in nature from each other, the GPS antennaand the other sensors are used while compensating each other to acquirepresent position information indicating the present position of thevehicle.

The manipulation device 23 is manipulatable by the user, and includes atouch panel, a mechanical key switch or the like. The touch panel isintegrated with a display screen of the display device 25. The keyswitch is arranged in a periphery of the display device 25.

The storage 24 stores a data for map matching for improvement ofposition detection accuracy, a map data, a program for operation of thein-vehicle navigation apparatus 20, and the like. In addition, thestorage 24 has an area for storing the facility-event information etc.transmitted from the management apparatus 30. Moreover, a vehicle ID foridentification of the vehicle is pre-stored in the storage 24.

The display device 25 is a color display device having a display screensuch as a liquid crystal display and the like. The display device 25 candisplay various images on the display screen in accordance with an inputof an image or video signal from the controller 21. When the vehicle istraveling, the display device 25 displays, for example, a navigationwindow while superimposing additional data such as: a mark indicatingthe present position, which is identified from (i) the present positionof the vehicle detected by the position detection device 22 and (ii) themap data inputted from the storage 24; a guidance route to thedestination; name; mark symbol of various landmarks; and the like. Thedisplay device 25 can further display various information such as thefacility-event information and the like extracted from the storage 24.

The communication device 26 includes a short-range wirelesscommunication portion for wireless communicating with the cellular phone10, and a wide-area wireless communication portion for wirelesslycommunicating with the management apparatus 30. Details of theseportions can be similar to those of the cellular phone 10.

The interface 2 includes a connection device for having a wiredconnection to the cellular phone 10 to realize what is called “handsfreecommunications”. The interface 2 outputs speech spoken by other party toan in-vehicle speaker via the speech output device 28. The interface 2is configured to acquire various information by communicating with thecellular phone 10 in a wired-manner.

[Configuration of Management Apparatus 30]

The management apparatus 30 controls and manages information on users ofthe information providing system 1 and the facility-event information tobe provided to users. The management apparatus 30 is installed in aninformation center, which may be a facility of an operator (host) of theinformation providing system 1. As the management apparatus 30, a singleapparatus is commonly used for multiple in-vehicle navigationapparatuses 20.

The management apparatus 30 includes a controller 31 for controllinggenerally all of operations of the management apparatus 30, acommunication device 32 for communicating with an external device, afacility-event information database (DB) 33 for storing a variety offacility-event information, an attribute information database (DB) 34for storing a management table 4 indicating various informationassociated with user attributes, and a storage 35 for storing othervarious information including the map data.

The controller 31 includes a computer with a CPU, ROM, RAM, I/O, a busline connecting the foregoing components, and the like. The controller31 performs various processes according to programs stored in the RAM oran external storage device. The external storage device pre-stores a mapdate while associating location data of each facility or event withname, address, phone number etc. of the facility or event.

The communication device 32 performs data communications with themultiple in-vehicle navigation apparatuses 20 and cellular phones 10using the cell phone network, DSRC (Dedicated Short RangeCommunication), or the like in a wireless manner. Further, thecommunication device 32 performs data communications with multipleinformation provider terminals 40, which are terminals used by anoperator of each facility etc., or used by other users.

The facility-event information DB 33 stores the facility-eventinformation of multiple facilities or events in such way that locationdata of each facility or event is associated with user ID of informationprovider (informant). The facility-event information can be updated orregistered from the information provider terminal 40 and the cellularphone 10 when the information provider terminal 40 is connected to andcommunicatable with the management apparatus 30 via Internet or when thecellular phone 10 is connected to and communicatable with the managementapparatus 30 via the cell phone network. Contents written on SNS (SocialNetworking Site) such as a Blog or Twitter can be used for the abovekind of facility-event information.

The facility-event information is structured into three levels ofhierarchical information elements different in information amount fromeach other. The three levels of hierarchical information elements are“label information”, “headline information” and “detail information”.The label information can be used to form an icon or the like thatindicates that there is some information at the place of the facility orevent when the facility-event information of this facility or event isprovided to a user. The label information is made of a relatively smallamount of data as compared with the headline information and the detailinformation. The headline information can be used to form a headline ora tile when the facility-event information is provided to a user. Theheadline information is made of a relatively small amount of data ascompared with the detail information. The detail information can be usedto form detailed content when the facility-event information is providedto a user. A main component of the detail information may be text dataand image data. The detail information include a review (e.g., rating)or a comment by a user who actually had visited on the facility orevent.

The facility-event information is stored in the facility-eventinformation DB33 while being classified into pre-scribed “attributegroups” 3 according to type of its information content. In the presentembodiment, the attribute groups 3 include: “a physical use group 3A”made of information contents mainly associated with use of one'sphysical body (physical activity); “a mental use group 3B” made ofinformation content mainly associated with use of one's head (mentalactivity); “a physical rest group 3C” made of information contentsmainly associated with rest of one's body; and “a mental rest group 3D”made of information contents mainly associated with rest of one's head.For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, the physical use group 3A includes thefacility-event information associated with swimming, skiing and thelike. The mental use group 3B includes the facility-event informationassociated with educational materials, games and the like. The physicalrest group 3C includes the facility-event information associated withmeal (e.g., dinner), hot spring and the like. The mental rest group 3Dincludes the facility-event information associated with classic music,art, and the like.

The attribute information DB 34 includes multiple management tables 4for respective multiple users on a user-by-user basis. A variety ofinformation transmitted from the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 orthe cellular phone 10 is recorded and stored in the management table 4.The attribute information DB 34 further includes multiple attributeradar charts 5 for respective multiple users on a user-by-user basis.Depending on contents of the various information stored in themanagement table 4, each attribute radar chart 5 indicates a tendency ofindividual user' interests by weighting respective attribute groups 3Ato 3D (see FIG. 2B). The above-described vehicle ID, a user ID, a phonenumber of the cellular phone 10 possessed by the user, a mail address,and the like are pre-registered in the corresponding management table 4.

[Control Process of Cellular Phone 10]

Processes performed by the cellular phone 10 will be described.

[1. Facility-Event Information Providing Process]

In response to user manipulation on the touch panel portion 13 of thecellular phone 10 and start up of the browser function of the cellularphone 10, the facility-event information providing process is started.Using the browser function, the controller 15 accesses a homepage(web-site) operated by the information center. Then, the user may inputname, review (rating etc.), comment (impression etc.), or image(including movie) in the homepage and may make en enter manipulation. Inthis case, the controller 15 transmits the inputted information as thefacility-event information to the management apparatus 30 via thecommunication device 17 together with the user ID of the user.Alternatively, the user may write down a message on another website suchas Twitter, Blog and the like. In this case, the controller 15 mayextract a keyword corresponding to one stored in the storage 16 from themessage, and may transmits the information, which represents the messageincluding the extracted keyword, as the facility-event information tothe management apparatus 30 via the communication device 17 togetherwith the user ID of the user. In this way, the user can provide thefacility-event information to the information center by using thecellular phone 10.

[2. Sensor Information Providing Process]

In response to power on of the cellular phone 10 itself, this sensorinformation providing process is started. Based on the various detectionsignals periodically inputted from the detector 18, the controller 15transmits sensor information together with the user ID of the user tothe management apparatus 30 via the communication device 17. The sensorinformation includes information indicating the present position and themovement speed of the cellular phone 10, the temperature, the humidity,the atmospheric pressure and the luminance at the present position, andthe like. When the telephone call function of the cellular phone 10 isstarted up in response to user's manipulation on the touch panel portion13, the information indicating loudness of telephone call speechinputted into the cellular phone 10 is incorporated into the sensorinformation and transmitted to the management apparatus 30. In this way,it becomes possible to automatically transmit the sensor information atthe present position of the cellular phone 10 to the managementapparatus 30, and thereby, it becomes possible to provide variousinformation at each facility or event place to the information center.

[3. User Information Transmission Process]

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating procedure of a user informationtransmission process performed by the controller 15 of the cellularphone 10.

Upon starting up the browser function or the telephone call function inresponse to user's manipulation on the touch panel portion 13(corresponding to S101), the controller 15 starts the user informationtransmission process.

When the start up of the browser function triggers a start of the userinformation transmission process (“A” at S101), the process proceeds toS102.

At S102, it is determined whether a search is conducted using an searchengine on a homepage. In other words, it is determined whether a searchword is inputted into the search engine. When it is determined that thesearch is conducted, corresponding to “YES” at S102, the controller 15records a date, hour and time when the search word is inputted (adate-time of search, a time period of search) in the storage 16, and theprocess proceeds to S103. When it is determined that the search is notconducted, corresponding to “NO” at S102, the process proceeds to S105.In the above, it may be determined that the search word is inputted,when the search word corresponds to a keyword pre-stored in the storage16.

At S103, the controller 15 measures and records a browsing time of ahomepage (webpage) to which the user has moved using the search word atS102 via the search engine. The browsing time can be defined as a timeperiod from the date-time of search to when the user goes to anotherwebsite. After S103, the process proceeds to S104. Note that the usermay go to another website by selecting a favorite shortcut or directlyinputting URL.

At S104, the controller 15 creates user information indicating (i) thesearch word and the date-time of search recorded in the storage 16 atS102 and (ii) the browsing time recorded at S103. After S104, theprocess proceeds to S111.

At S105, based on how the touch panel portion 13 is manipulated, it isdetermined whether a commercial product (including not only a productbut also service) is purchased from the currently-viewed homepage overwhat is called Internet shopping. When it is determined that thecommercial product is purchased, corresponding to “YES” at S105, thecontroller 15 extracts name of the purchased commercial product or asimilar word from keywords pre-stored in the storage 16, and the processproceeds to S106. When it is determined that the commercial product isnot purchased, corresponding to “NO” at S105, the process returns toS101. The name of the commercial product or a similar word to beextracted is also called herein “a commercial product word”.

At S106, the controller 15 creates the user information indicating thecommercial product word at S106, an amount of payment, (settlementamount), and a purchase date and time (settlement date and time).

Description returns to S101. When the start up of the calling functiontriggers the start of the user information transmission process(corresponding to “B” at S101), the process proceeds to S107.

At S107, the controller 15 recognizes the speech inputted into thecellular phone 10 when the user is in a telephone call, and thecontroller 15 determines whether the recognized speech in the telephonecall contains a keyword stored in the storage 16. When it is determinedthat the speech contains the keywords (corresponding to “YES” at S107),the process proceeds to S108 after extracting the keyword. When it isdetermined that the speech does not contain the keyword, correspondingto “NO” at S107, the process returns to S101.

At S108, it is determined whether speech frequency at the time of user'sutterance of the keyword recognized at 107 shows a waveform patternpre-stored in the storage 16. When the speech frequency shows thewaveform pattern pre-stored in the storage 16, the process proceeds toS109. When the speech frequency fails to show the waveform patternpre-stored in the storage 16, the process proceeds to S110.

At S109, the controller 15 sets an emotion flag for the keywordrecognized at S107. The emotion flag indicates that the keyword wasuttered by the user with a pleasant feeling. The keyword uttered by theuser with a pleasant feeling is also called herein “pleasant keyword”.After S109, the process proceeds to S110.

At S110, the controller 15 creates the user information indicating thekeyword extracted at S107, a count of keyword extraction, a date andtime (hours) of keyword extraction, the other party in the telephonecall (e.g., other party's phone number), duration of the telephone call,and the presence or absence of the emotion flag (which is to be atS109). After S110, the process proceeds to S111.

At S111, the user information created at S104, S106 or S111 istransmitted to the management apparatus 30 via the communication device17 together with the user ID of the user. In this way, the userinformation, which indicates objects of user's interest etc., isautomatically transmitted to the management apparatus 30, and thereby, avariety of information needed to grasp the attribute of the user isprovided to the information center.

[4. History Transmission Process]

When the cellular phone 10 is connected to the in-vehicle navigationapparatus 20 in a wired manner or when the cellular phone 10 receives aninformation acquisition request from the in-vehicle navigation apparatus20 via communication device 17, the history transmission process isstarted. The controller 15 reads out function history information fromthe storage 16, and transmits the read-out function history informationto the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 in a wired manner or awireless manner. The function history information describes a history ofusages of functions of the cellular phone 10, e.g., a date and time ofusage of the above-described additional function is used and a timeperiod of usage of the additional function. An objective of transmissionof the function history information to the in-vehicle navigationapparatus 20 will be described later.

[Control Processes of In-Vehicle Navigation Apparatus]

Next, processes performed by the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 willbe described.

[1. Received Information Recording Process]

The received information recording process is started in response to thepower on of the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 or the cellular phone10.

Until the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 establishes a communicationwith the cellular phone carried by the user, the controller 21 transmitsthe above-described information acquisition request via thecommunication device 26. When the controller 21 receives the functionhistory information from the cellular phone 10, the controller 21records the received function history information in the storage 24.Further, when the controller 21 receives the facility-event informationfrom the management apparatus 30 via the communication device 26, thecontroller 21 records the facility-event information in the storage 24in such a form that enables the facility-event information to be readout in units of the above-described label information, headlineinformation and detail information. Further, when the controller 21receives the below-described area information from the managementapparatus 30 via the communication device 26, the controller 21 recordsthe received area information in the storage 24 in such a format thatenables a daily living area (ordinary living area) and a non-dailyliving area (extraordinary living area) of the user to be read out. Thedaily living area shows a scope of daily activities of the user, and thenon-daily living area shows a scope of non-daily activities of the user.In the above-described way, the function history information from thecellular phone 10, and the facility-event information and the areainformation from the management apparatus 30 are recorded and stored inthe storage 24. Among the information stored in the storage 24, thefunction history information and the area information are updated bylatest received information, and the facility-event information may bedeleted when the detail information is read out by the controller 21.

[2. Information Transmission Process]

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of the informationtransmission process performed by the controller 21 of the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20.

The information transmission process is started in response to the poweron of the in-vehicle navigation-apparatus 20. A date-time when thein-vehicle-navigation-apparatus 20 was powered off previous time ispre-stored as a parking start date-time in the storage 24. The parkingstart date-time was recorded by the controller 21.

Upon starting the information transmission process, the controller 21first determines (S201) whether a parking time, which is from theparking start date-time pre-stored in the storage 24 to a parking endtime, is greater than or equal to a prescribed staying time. In theabove, the parking end time is a time when the power-one of thein-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 occurs as a trigger of the start ofthis information transmission process. When the parking time isdetermined to be greater than or equal to the prescribed staying time,corresponding to “YES” at S201, the process proceeds to S202. When theparking time is determined to not be greater than or equal to theprescribed staying time, corresponding to “NO” at S201, the processproceeds to S207.

At S202, the controller 21 sets the place, at which the vehicle hasparked not less than the prescribed staying time, as a stay place of theuser. In addition, the controller 21 estimates whether the stay place isa daily-visiting place or a non-daily-visiting place. In the above, thedaily-visit place is a place to be visited routinely, such as home,commuting place, work place, school place, grocery shop (includingsupermarket etc.), lesson class place (including gym etc.) and the like.The non-daily-visiting place is a place to be visited not routinely,such as travel destination, business trip destination, and the like.

For example, based on the present position information acquired from theposition detection device 22, the controller 21 records and stores thelocation date of the stay place in the storage 24 in conjunction withthe above-described parking start time and parking end time. Thecontroller 21 estimates based on the above stored data that the stayplace is home, if the vehicle is periodically parked at the same stayplace and if a time of day of parking the vehicle is midnight onweekdays. Alternatively, if the vehicle is periodically parked at thesame stay place in the daytime on weekdays, and if the parking time isrelatively long, the controller 21 estimates that a work time (or schooltime) is the parking time and a work place (or school place) is the stayplace. Alternatively, for example, depending on a parking time at thesame stay place where the vehicle is periodically parked, a park place(stay place) can be estimated as follows. If the parking time isrelatively short, the parking time and the stay place are estimated as ashopping time and a grocery shop, respectively. If the parking time islonger than the shopping time and shorter than the work time, the stayplace is estimated as a lesson class place.

At S203, it is determined whether the stay place estimated at S202 isthe daily-visiting place. When the stay place estimated at S202 isdetermined to be the daily-visiting place, the controller 21 sets andaily flag, and the process proceeds to S204. The daily flag indicatesthat the stay place estimated at S202 is the daily-visiting place. Whenthe stay place estimated at S202 is determined to not be thedaily-visiting place, the process proceeds to S205.

At S204, the controller 21 creates place information (daily-visitingplace information), which indicates the location data of thedaily-visiting place, type of the place (e.g., home, work place, groceryshop, lesson class place etc.) and the park hours of the day. AfterS204, the process proceeds to S206.

At S205, based on the location data of the non-daily visiting place andthe map data stored in the storage 24, the controller 21 creates theplace information (stay information) that indicates: name and place ofthe facility or event as the travel destination or the business tripdestination; a staying date-time; and a staying period.

At S206, the place information created at S204 or S206 is transmittedtogether with the vehicle ID of the vehicle to the management apparatus30 via the communication device 26, and the process proceeds to S207.Through the above manner, the place information indicating the stayplace of the user is automatically transmitted to the managementapparatus 30, and thereby, the information needed to grasp the livingarea of the user is provided to the information center.

At S207, it is determined whether a prescribed exception condition issatisfied, based on at least one of the function history informationstored in the storage 24, the present position information acquired fromthe position detection device 22, and the destination position in theabove-described route retrieval process. When it is determined that theprescribed exception condition is satisfied, corresponding to “YES” atS207, the process proceeds to S208. When it is determined that theprescribed exception condition is not satisfied, corresponding to “NO”at S207, the process proceeds to S209.

For example, the prescribed exception condition is at least one of thefollowings: the time period of usage of the additional function of thecellular phone 10 within a given period of time prior to the userboarding the vehicle is longer than a predetermined threshold time; anacquisition time and data of the present position information shows aholiday or a day before a holiday; the vehicle travels along a travelroute whose destination is home of the user; and the destinationposition is within the non-daily living area of the user, when the areainformation read out from the storage 24 is refereed.

At S208, the controller 21 creates exception information indicating thatthe exception condition is determined to be satisfied at S207. Further,together with the vehicle ID of the vehicle, the created exceptioninformation is transmitted to the management apparatus 30 via thecommunication device 26. After S208, the process proceeds to S209.

At S209, together with the vehicle ID of the vehicle, the presentposition information acquired from the position detection device 22 istransmitted to the management apparatus 30 via the communication device26, and the process proceeds to S207. Through the above manner, thepresent position information indicating the present position of the user(or the exception information, depending on cases) is automaticallytransmitted to the management apparatus 30. All of the informationneeded to extract the facility-event information, which is to beprovided to the user, is transmitted to the management apparatus 30.

This information providing process is started when the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20 is powered on and the first facility-eventinformation in the above-described received information recordingprocess is recorded in the storage 24. Upon starting this process, thecontroller 21 first performs S301. At S301, based on the detectionsignal inputted from each detection sensor connected with the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20, the controller 21 acquires detection valuesneeded to estimate a load condition of the user who is driving thevehicle.

At S302, it is determined whether, of the detection values acquired atS301, operation amounts detected by the pressing down amount sensor andthe steering wheel operation amount senor exceed prescribed thresholds.When the operation amounts are determined to exceed the thresholds,corresponding to “YES” at S302, the process proceeds to S305. When theoperation amounts are determined to not exceed the thresholds,corresponding to “NO” at S302, the process proceeds to S303.

At S303, a degree of increase in a specific value from a presetreference value of the user is calculated to be the above-describedactivation degree, and it is determined whether the calculatedactivation degree is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold(called also “first threshold”). When it is determined that thecalculated activation degree is greater than or equal to thepredetermined threshold, corresponding to “YES” at S303, the processproceeds to S304. When it is determined that the calculated activationdegree is less than to the predetermined threshold, corresponding to“NO” at S303, the process proceeds to S305. In the above, the specificvalue used to calculate the activation degree includes at least one ofthe detection values acquired at S301, such as the electrocardiographicvalue, the heart rate and the breathing rate detected with respectivephysiological sensors, and the blink rate (count) detected with theimage sensor.

At S304, the above-described pleasant degree is set based on at leastone of the pupil size, the direction of eyes and the user's speech (thespeech uttered by the user), and it is determined whether the pleasantdegree is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold (calledalso “second threshold”). When it is determined that the pleasant degreeis greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold, correspondingto “YES” at S304, the process proceeds to S306. When it is determinedthat the pleasant degree is less than the predetermined threshold,corresponding to “NO” at S304, the process proceeds to S305. In theabove, the pupil size and the direction of eyes are ones of thedetection values acquired at S301 and are detected with the imagesensor, and, the user's speech is also another one of the detectionvalues acquired at S301 and is inputted via the interface 27.

For example, the pleasant degree is set to a value higher than thesecond threshold, if the controller 21 recognizes at least one of thefollowings: the pupil of the user is enlarged to size larger than apredetermined value; the direction of eyes of the user points to adisplay site of the display device 25 more than a given period of time;and the speech uttered by the user at a time of the handsfreecommunications shows the above-described waveform pattern.

At S305, the controller 21 estimates that the load of the user at thetime of driving is in a relatively large load state. Further, from thestorage 24, the controller 21 extracts the label information as one ofthe hierarchical information elements that matches the above loadcondition in point of the amount of information, and displays theextracted label information on the display device 25. Further, inaddition to the label information, the display device 25 displays a linkbutton linked to the headline information or the detail information,each of which constitutes the facility-event information.

At S306, the controller 21 estimates that the load of the user at thetime of driving is in a relatively small load state. Further, from thestorage 24, the controller 21 extracts the head line information as oneof the hierarchical information elements that matches the above loadcondition in point of the amount of information, and displays theextracted headline information on the display device 25. Further, inaddition to the headline information, the display device 25 displays alink button linked to the detail information, which constitutes thefacility-event information.

At S307 after S305 or S306, the controller 21 waits a predeterminedperiod of time for the above-described link button to be manipulated viathe manipulation device 23 by touch manipulation. When the link buttonis manipulated within the predetermined period, the process proceeds toS308. At S308, the controller 21 switches display of the display device25 from the label information or the headline information into to thedetail information.

A form of display of the facility-event information (each hierarchicalinformation element) on the display device 25 may be the following. Thefacility-event information may be displayed on the map in the navigationwindow. Alternatively, the facility-event information may be separatelydisplayed independently of the map. Alternatively, multiple types orpieces of the facility-event information may be simultaneously displayedor displayed in an order of increasing distance based on the presentposition of the vehicle. The facility-event information of multiplefacility or events may be displayed in an order of increasing distancefrom the present position along the travel route in a travelingdirection of the vehicle.

[Control Processes of Management Apparatus 30]

Processes performed by the management apparatus 30 will be described.

[1. Facility-Event Information Registration Process]

In response to power-on of the management apparatus 30, thefacility-event information registration process is started. In responseto receiving the facility-event information from the informationprovider terminal 40 or the cellular phone 10 via the communicationdevice 32, the controller 31 records the facility-event information offacilities or events in the facility-event information DB 33 whileassociating the facility-event information of each facility or eventwith (i) the location data of the facility or event and (ii) an operatorID of the facility etc. or the above-described user ID. If thefacility-event information of the same place is already stored in thefacility-event information DB 33, this memory information is updated. Inthe above, the operator ID is an ID for identification of the operatorof the facility etc.

[2. Real-Time-Information Generation Process]

In response to power-on of the management apparatus 30, thereal-time-information generation process is started. In response toreception of the sensor information from the cellular phone 10 via thecommunication device 32, the controller 31 records the sensorinformation in the storage 35 while associating the sensor informationwith a date and time of the reception of the sensor information and theuser ID of the provide of the sensor information. For example, as shownin FIG. 6, the place of a facility or event corresponding to the presentposition of the cellular phone 10, the degrees of luminance (brightness)and atmospheric pressure, the temperature, the humidity, the movementspeed, the degree of surrounding noise corresponding to loudness of theinputted speech, and the like are recorded and stored in the storage 35based on the sensor information while being associated with thereception date-and-time and the user ID. Next, based on the aboveinformation, the controller 31 estimates a real-time situation of thefacility or event place, and generates real-time information indicatinga result of this estimation. For example, if the facility or event placeis an indoor one such as a department store and the like, the controller31 can estimate from the degree of noise whether many people arevisiting. If the movement speed shows an extremely small speed, thecontroller 31 can estimate that the facility or event place is crowded.If the facility or event place is an outdoor one such as a skiing resortand the like, the controller 31 can estimate weather at that place fromthe luminance or humidity with respect to a time, and can estimatealtitude of the place from the atmospheric pressure or the humidity(multiple different information is required). Furthermore, from the userIDs, the controller 31 can estimate what kind of people is actuallyvisiting. Then, the real-time information indicating a result of theabove-described estimation is recorded and stored in the facility-eventinformation DB 33 in such way that the real-time information is includedin the detail information of the facility-event information directed tothe same facility or event as the real-time information. In this way, itis possible to give the cellular phone 10 a role of a kind of sensor forgenerating real-time information, and it is possible to bring diversity(variety) to contents of the facility-event information and thus it ispossible to enrich contents to be provided to a user.

[3. Area Information Registration Process]

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating procedure of the area informationregistration process performed by the controller 31 of the managementapparatus 30.

The controller 31 starts this area information registration process inresponse to receiving the place information from the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20 via the communication device 32 (S401: YES). AtS402, in the storage 35, the controller 31 records and stores (i) theplace information (location date of the stay place) received as atrigger for starting this process and (ii) the user ID transmittedtogether with this place information, so that the place information andthe user ID are associated with each other. In the storage 35, eachlocation data is stored so that for the user, living place andnon-living place are distinguishable from each other, and type of livingplace (home, work place, grocery shop, lesson class place etc.) and typeof non-living place (facility, event place etc.) are distinguishablefrom each other.

At S403, the controller 31 estimates that the living area of this useris a collective area covering all of the stay places of the user, basedon respective location data corresponding to multiple stay places storedin the storage 35 in association with the user ID. In the presentembodiment, an area whose diameter is between specific two stay placesmay be estimated as the living area. The specific two stay places aretwo stay places having the longest distance among the multiple stayplaces of the user.

At S404, the controller 31 estimates that a daily living area of thisuser is a collective area covering all of the daily-visiting places ofthe user, based on respective location data corresponding to multipledaily-visiting places stored in the storage 35 in association with theuser ID. In the present embodiment, for all combinations of thedaily-visiting places stored in the storage 35, the controller 31calculates, by refereeing to the map data, a rational shortest routehaving one daily-visiting place as a departure point and anotherdaily-visiting place as a destination point. In the above, the rationalshortest route is a path that is shortest in terms of time, distance orcost. The controller 31 sets a collective area covering these multiplecalculated routes as the above-mentioned daily-living area.

At S405, the controller 31 sets the following area as the non-dailyliving area of the user. The area set as the no-daily living area of theuser is the living area of the user estimated at S403 except the dailyliving area of the user set at S404. In other words, the extraordinaryliving area is an area obtained by subtracting “a overlap between theliving area of the user estimated at S403 and the daily living area ofthe user set at S404” from “the living area of the user estimated atS403”. Thus, all of the non-daily-visiting places of the user areincluded in the non-daily living area and the daily-visiting places ofthe user are excluded from the non-daily living area.

At S406, the controller 31 records and stores the area information,which indicates the daily living area and the non-daily living area setin the above-described way, in the management table 4 of the user in theattribute information DB 34. In addition, via the communication device32, the controller 31 transmits this area information to the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20 that had transmitted the place informationserving as the trigger for starting the present area informationregistration process. After S406, the present area informationregistration process is ended.

[4. Attribute Information Creation Process]

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explanation on the attribute informationcreation process performed by the controller 31 of the managementapparatus 30. In the attribute information creation process, to beginwith, various information (the user information, the stay information)transmitted from the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 or the cellularphone 10 is recorded and stored in the management table 4 correspondingto the user ID (or the vehicle ID) in the attribute information DB 34,as shown in FIG. 8.

For example, in response to receiving the user information including thesearch word from the cellular phone 10 via the communication device 32,the controller 31 records the date-time of search, the search word andthe browsing time, which are contained in the user information, in acategory “search” in the management table 4. Then, the controller 31identifies an attribute group 3 (one of the attribute groups 3A to 3D)corresponding to the search word. In addition, depending on the browsingtime of the website associated with this search word, the controller 31sets a larger weighting factor for the identified attribute group 3 (oneof the attribute groups 3A to 3D) of the attribute radar chart 5 (seeFIG. 2B).

In another case, in response to receiving the stay information from thein-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 via the communication device 32, thecontroller 31 records the stay date-time, the name and place of thefacility or event, and the staying time, which are contained in the stayinformation, in a category “movement” of the management table 4. Then,the controller 31 identifies an attribute group 3 (one of the attributegroups 3A to 3D) corresponding to the name of the facility and event. Inaddition, depending on the staying time, the controller 31 sets a largerweighting for the identified attribute group 3 (one of the attributegroups 3A to 3D) of the attribute radar chart 5 (see FIG. 2B).

In yet another case, in response to receiving the user informationincluding the commercial product from the cellular phone 10 via thecommunication device 32, the controller 31 records the settlementdate-time, the commercial product word and the payment amount, which arecontained in the user information, are recorded in a category“settlement” in the management table 4. Then, the controller 31identifies an attribute group 3(one of the attribute groups 3A to 3D)corresponding to the commercial product word. In addition, depending onthe payment amount, the controller 31 sets a larger weighting factor forthe identified attribute group 3 (one of the attribute groups 3A to 3D)of the attribute radar chart 5 (see FIG. 2B).

In yet another case, in response to receiving the user informationincluding the keyword from the cellular phone 10 via the communicationdevice 32, the controller 31 records the date-time of extraction of thekeyword, the keyword and the duration of telephone call, which arecontained in the user information, in a category “telephone call” of themanagement table 4. Then, the controller 31 identifies an attributegroup 3 (one of the attribute groups 3A to 3D) corresponding to thekeyword. In addition, depending on the duration of telephone call, thecontroller 31 sets a larger weighting for the identified attribute group3 (one of the attribute groups 3A to 3D) of the attribute radar chart 5(see FIG. 2B). In particular, if the emotion flag is set to the userinformation, the controller 31 records and stores the keyword as apleasant keyword, sets a larger weighting depending on the count ofextraction of the pleasant keyword, and records and stores a user ID ofthe third party in the telephone call by regarding the third party asthe values-sharing person.

In this way, the attribute radar chart 5, which shows a tendency ofindividual user's interests by weighting respective attribute groups 3Ato 3D, is updated. A facility or event place actually visited by anindividual user, a staying date-time, various keywords (including asearch word, a commercial product word), a date-time of extraction, anda user ID corresponding to a values-sharing person are recorded.

[5. Facility-Event Information Transmission Process]

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of the facility-eventinformation transmission process performed by the controller 31 of themanagement apparatus 30.

The controller 31 starts the facility-event information transmissionprocess in response to receiving the present position information or theexception information from the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 viathe communication device 32.

At S501, it is determine whether the received information is theexception information. When the controller 31 does not receive theexception information via the communication device 32, corresponding to“NO” at S501, the process proceeds to S502.

At S502, the search scope for extracting the facility-event informationfrom the facility-event information DB 33 is decreased based on thevehicle ID added to the exception information. For example, based on thepresent position information (the present position information added tothe same vehicle ID as the above-described exception information)received via the communication device 32, the search scope is set in thefollowing way. When the present position of the vehicle is within thedaily living area of the user corresponding to this vehicle ID, thesearch scope is set to the day-living area. When the present position ofthe vehicle is within the non-daily living area, the search scope is setto this non-daily living area. When it is determined at S502 that thecontroller 31 receives the exception information via the communicationdevice 32, corresponding to “YES” at S501, the process proceeds to S503.

At S503, the search scope is set to the living area of the user coveringthe daily-living area and the non-daily living area, so that the searchscope is enlarged.

At S504, it is determined whether the controller 31 receives the presentposition information via the communication device 32. When the presentposition information is not received (S504, NO), the process returns toS501. When the present position information is received (S504, YES), theprocess proceeds to S505.

At S505, for the attribute group 3 (one or ones of 3A to 3D), thecontroller 31 sets a ratio (extraction ratio) in extracting thefacility-event information according to the weighting shown by theattribute radar chart 5 (see FIG. 2B) of the user based on the vehicleID added to the present position information.

At S506, the controller 31 refers to the management table 4 in theattribute information DB 34 based on the user ID. If the values-sharingperson, who is a person registered as sharing values with the user,exists, the controller 31 refers to in turn the facility-eventinformation DB 33 based on the user ID of this value-sharing person, anddetermines whether the facility-event information provided from thevalues-sharing person, if exists, matches the above-mentioned searchscope. When the above-mentioned facility-event information matching thesearch scope (S506, YES) exists, the process proceeds to S507.

At S507, the controller 31 configures a setting for extracting andtransmitting this facility-event information (also called“values-sharing information”), such that this facility-event informationis to be preferentially extracted and transmitted.

At S508, the controller 31 refers to the management table 4 in theattribute information DB 34 based on the user ID. If there is thepleasant keyword of this user, the controller 31 refers to thefacility-event information DB 33, and determines whether there is thefacility-event information classified as one of the attribute groups 3(any of 3A to 3D) that corresponds to this pleasant keyword and matchesthe above-mentioned search scope. If this facility-event informationexists (S508, YES), the process proceeds to S509.

At S509, the controller 31 configures a setting for extracting andtransmitting this facility-event information such that thisfacility-event information (also called herein “pleasant objectinformation”) is to be absolutely extracted and transmitted.

At S510, in accordance with the extraction ratio set at S505 andcontents of the settings configured at S507 and S509, the controller 31extracts the facility-event information matching the above-mentionedsearch scope from the facility-event information DB 33.

At S511, the controller 31 schedules the date-object information to betransmitted, if the facility-event information extracted at S510includes the date-object information. In the above, the date-objectinformation is such information that a time or season to provide theinformation to the user is of importance. For example, the controller 31schedules the transmission of the facility-event information of agrocery shop in such a way that the time of transmission of thefacility-event information is set to a park-hours of day of the groceryshop. Furthermore, the controller 31 schedules the transmission of (i)the facility-event information of a facility or event dealing with aseasonal food or (ii) the facility-event information of a seasonal sportsuch as skinning and the like in such a way that the time of thetransmission is set to a corresponding season. The above date-objectinformation is pre-stored in the facility-event information DB 33 so asto be distinguishable from other facility-event information. Times orseasons to provide particular information to users can be different fromuser to user. Thus, such times or seasons are previously recorded andstored in the management tables 4 for respective users in the attributeinformation DB 34, based on the place information from the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20 or the user information (specifically, the dateand time of keyword extraction) from the cellular phone 10.

S511, the controller 31 transmits all of the facility-event informationextracted at S510 except the date-object information to the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20 via the communication device 32. In addition,the controller 31 transmits a specific part, corresponding to thepresent date and hours (including the present time), of the date-objectinformation scheduled at S511 to the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20via the communication device 32. After S511, the facility-eventinformation transmission process is ended.

[Exemplary Unpredictable Advantages]

As can be seen from the above, the information providing system 1 of thepresent invention is configured so that: the present positioninformation is acquired by the position detection device 22 of thein-vehicle navigation apparatus 20; the stay place of the vehicle is setbased on the present position information; the management apparatus 30estimates a living area of the user from the multiple stay places; thesearch scope is set to an inside of the living area; and thefacility-event information is extracted using the search scope and istransmitted to the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20.

Therefore, according to the information providing system 1 of thepresent embodiment, it is possible to automatically provide theinformation matching a lifestyle of the user within traveling areas ofthe vehicle; therefore, it is possible to restrict unwanted informationfrom being provided and it is possible to restrict wanted informationfrom failing to be provided. Furthermore, it is possible to eliminate acumbersome operation for a user. As a result, it is possible to providea system that can rationally provide information useful to a user andcan have high usability.

Furthermore, in the information providing system 1, the cellular phoneowned by individual user is usable as a sensor at each facility or eventplace; thereby, information showing a real-time situation can beincorporated in the facility-event information and more usefulinformation can be rationally provided.

Furthermore, in the information providing system 1, the managementapparatus 30 measures level of each user's interests in respectivegenres (attribute groups 3A to 3D) by using the attribute radar chart,and transmits the facility-event information corresponding to therespective genres in balance (extraction ratios) suited for each user.Therefore, it is possible to provide useful information while coveringuser's preferences without bias.

Furthermore, in the information providing system 1, the attribute radarchart 5 weights respective genres according to the staying time at eachfacility or event place, the browsing time of the website associatedwith the search word, the settlement amount at purchase of the productassociated with the commercial product word, the duration of telephonecall when the various keywords were extracted, the count of keywordsextracted during the telephone call with the values-sharing person, andthe like. Therefore, it is possible to more appropriately reflect user'ssense of values, as compared with a case where weights on genres are setmerely according to reception count of such information.

Furthermore, in the information providing system 1, the managementapparatus 30 refers to the management tables 4 of respective users inthe attribute information DB 34, and schedules transmission of thedate-object information so that the date-object information will betransmitted at the specific time or season determined based on the dateand time of keyword extraction. Therefore, it is possible to provide thefacility-event information (date-object information) at right time andat right season appropriate for each user.

Furthermore, the information providing system 1 automatically identifiesthe values-sharing person who shares values with the user. To this user,the management apparatus 30 preferentially transmits the facility-eventinformation (values-sharing information) provided from thevalues-sharing person. Therefore, it is possible to rationally provide alot of information matching his or her sense of values.

Other Embodiments

Embodiment is not limited to the above-described embodiment and can havevarious forms.

For example, in the area information registration process of the aboveembodiment, the collective area covering all of rational paths from onedaily-visiting place of the user to another daily-visiting place of theuser is set as the daily-living area. However, the daily-living area isnot limited to the above example. For example, an area whose radius isbetween two daily-visiting places having the longest distance amongcombinations of the multiples daily-visiting places may be set as thedaily living area.

In the information providing system 1 of the above embodiment, themanagement apparatus 30 performs the area information registrationprocess and thereby sets the living-area of the user (daily living area,non-daily living area). Alternatively, for example, the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20 may performs a process for setting theliving-area of the user (daily living area, non-daily living area) andmay transmit, in place of the place information, the area informationindicating the living area to the management apparatus 30.

In the information providing system 1 of the above embodiment, thein-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 is mounted to the vehicle.Alternatively, a portable navigation apparatus or a portable apparatusmay act as the above in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20. For example,the cellular phone 10 having a navigation function may act as the abovein-vehicle navigation apparatus 20.

In the information providing system 1 of the above embodiment, thein-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 provides the facility-eventinformation to a user through communicating with the managementapparatus 30. Alternatively, the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20 mayinclude the facility-event information DB 33 or the management table 4of the user, and may provide the facility-event information to the userwithout communicating with the management apparatus 30. Furthermore, theinformation providing apparatus is not limited to the in-vehiclenavigation apparatus 20, and may be the portable apparatus or thecellular phone 10.

[Aspects]

The navigation system including the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20can correspond to an in-vehicle apparatus. The facility-eventinformation DB 33 can correspond to an information storage means, unitor device. The position detection device 22 can correspond to a presentposition acquisition means, unit or device. The controller 31, which isconfigured to perform the area information registration process and thefacility-event information transmission process (S501 to S504), cancorrespond to a search scope setting means, unit or device. Thecontroller 31, which is configured to perform the facility-eventinformation transmission process (S505 to S510), can correspond to aninformation extraction means, unit or device. The display device 25 cancorrespond to an information indicating means, unit or device, and aninformation displaying means, unit or device. The controller 21, whichis configured to perform the information transmission process (S201 toS206), can correspond to a stay place setting means, unit or device. Thestorage 24 can correspond to a received information storage (receivedinformation storage means, unit or device). The controller 21, which isconfigured to perform the information providing process (S301 to S304),can correspond to a user condition estimation means, unit or device. Thecontroller 21, which is configured to perform the information providingprocess (S305 to S306), can correspond to a hierarchical informationextraction means, unit or device. The pressing down amount sensor andthe steering wheel operation amount sensor, which are ones of detectionsensors connected to the in-vehicle navigation apparatus 20, cancorrespond to an operation amount detection means, unit or device. Thephysiological sensor and the image sensor can correspond to anactivation degree detection means, unit or device. The image sensor andthe interface 27 (and the cellular phone 10) can correspond to apleasant degree estimation means, unit or device.

According to a first example of embodiment, an information providingapparatus for providing facility-event information, which is informationof facilities or events, includes an information storage, a presentposition acquisition unit, a search scope setting unit, an informationextraction unit, an information indicating unit, and a stay placesetting unit. The information storage stores the facility-eventinformation of facilities or events while associating the facility-eventinformation of the facilities or events with respective location data ofthe facilities or events. The present position acquisition unit acquirespresent position information indicating present position of theinformation providing apparatus. The search scope setting unit sets asearch scope parameterized by the location data, based on the presentposition information acquired by the present position acquisition unit.The information extraction unit extracts, from the information storage,the facility-event information that matches the search scope set by thesearch scope setting unit. The information indicating unit provides atleast some of the facility-event information extracted by theinformation extraction unit, to a user of the information providingapparatus. The stay place setting unit measures, based on the presentposition information acquired by the present position acquisition unit,a movement stop time defined as a period of time from when movement ofthe information providing apparatus stops to when the movement of theinformation providing apparatus restarts. The stay place setting unitsets each place, at which the measured movement stop time exceeds aprescribed staying time, as a stay place. The search scope setting unitestimates that a living area of the user is a collective area coveringall of the stay places of the user based on the location datacorresponding to the stay places set by the stay place setting unit. Thesearch scope setting unit sets the collective area as the search scope.

According to the above information providing apparatus, it is possibleto extract the facility-event information that matches a style-basedsearch scope representing a living area of the user, unlike aconventional case where a mere-distance-based search scope is used.Therefore, the information matching the user's lifestyle will beprovided. For this reason, it is possible to restrict unwantedinformation (noise) from being provided to the user and it is possibleto surely provide useful information to the user even when the userinformation is information about a facility or event in “area located Xkm distant or more from the present position”. Furthermore, since theliving are of the use is automatically estimated from the multiple stayplaces where the user stays, it is unnecessary for a user to perform amanual input and it is possible to eliminate a cumbersome settingoperation for the user.

Therefore, the above information providing apparatus can provideinformation useful to a user in a rational manner. The above informationproviding apparatus can have high usability.

According to a second example of embodiment, an information providingsystem may be configured as follows.

The information providing system includes: a management apparatus thatincludes a database, the database storing the facility-event informationof facilities or events while associating the facility-event informationof the facilities or events with respective location data of thefacilities or events; and a portable apparatus that communicates withthe management apparatus. The portable apparatus acquires presentposition information indicating the present position of the portableapparatus, transmits portable-source information, which is based on thepresent position information, to the management apparatus, and provides,to a user of the portable apparatus, at least some of the facility-eventinformation transmitted from the management apparatus. The managementapparatus sets, based on the portable-source information transmittedfrom the portable apparatus, a search scope parameterized by thelocation data. The management apparatus extracts the facility-eventinformation matching the search scope from the database, and transmitsthe extracted facility-event information to the portable apparatus. Theportable apparatus measures, based on the present position information,a movement stop time defined as a period of time from when movement ofthe portable apparatus stops to when the movement of the portableapparatus restarts. The portable apparatus sets each place, at which themovement stop time exceeds a prescribed staying time, as a stay place,and transmits place information indicating each stay place to themanagement apparatus. The management apparatus estimates, based on thelocation data corresponding to respective stay places transmitted fromthe portable apparatus, that a living area of the user is a collectivearea covering all of the stay places of the user. The managementapparatus sets the collective area as the search scope.

According to the above information providing system, for thesubstantially same reason described in the above first example, it ispossible to restrict unwanted information (noise) from being provided tothe user and it is possible to surely provide useful information to theuser even when the user information is information about a facility orevent “in an area located X km distant or more from the presentposition”. Furthermore, t is possible to eliminate a cumbersome settingoperation for the user.

Therefore, the above information providing apparatus can provideinformation useful to a user in a rational manner. The above informationproviding apparatus can have high usability.

According to a third example of embodiment, an information providingsystem may be configured so that the information providing system of thethird example is different from the information providing system of thesecond example in the following points.

Specifically, the information providing system of the third exampleincludes, in place of the portable apparatus, an in-vehicle apparatusmounted to a vehicle and configured to be capable of communicating withthe management apparatus. Because of this, the present positioninformation indicates present position of the vehicle.

Furthermore, the in-vehicle apparatus measures a parking time of thevehicle, sets each place, at which the parking time exceeds a prescribedstaying time, as a stay place based on the present position information,and transmits place information indicating each stay place to themanagement apparatus. The management apparatus estimates that a livingarea of the user is a collective area covering all of the stay places ofthe user, based on respective location data corresponding to the stayplaces transmitted from the in-vehicle apparatus, and sets thecollective area as the search scope.

According to the above information providing system, for thesubstantially same reason described in the above first and secondexamples, it is possible to provide information useful to a user in arational manner. The above information providing apparatus can have highusability.

There may be various manners of estimating the living area of the user.

For example, the living area may be estimated as the collective areathat covers all rational paths from one of the stay places to anotherone of the stay places.

In the above configuration, the facility-event information of a facilityor event nearby a place where the vehicle is expected to certainly passthrough can be provided to the user. If there is the facility-eventinformation that the user likes, the user can relatively easily drop onthe facility or event place indicated by the facility-event information.It should be noted that the rational path may be for example a pathcomputed by a minimum cost calculation using Dijkstra method, or may bean actually frequently-used path.

Alternatively, the living area may be estimated as an area whosediameter is between specific two of the stay places, the specific twohaving therebetween largest distance among combinations of the stayplaces. In this case, it is possible to straightforwardly obtain thearea from only the multiple already-set stay places, without taking intoaccount the above route calculation or use frequency. Thus, a process ofsetting the living area can be made as an easy or simple process.Therefore, it is possible to reduce load on the apparatus.

The living area may be divided into a daily living area and a non-dailyliving area. For example, the information providing system may beconfigured as follows. The in-vehicle apparatus sets each place, whichis one stay place where the vehicle is periodically parked, as adaily-visiting place based on an acquisition date and time of thepresent position information, and transmits daily-visiting placeinformation indicating each daily-visiting place to the managementapparatus. The management apparatus estimates, from respective locationdate of the daily-visiting places, that a daily-living area of the useris a collective area that covers all of the daily-visiting places of theuser and a non-daily-living area is the living area except thedaily-living area. The management apparatus acquires the presentposition information from the in-vehicle apparatus, and sets the searchscope based on the present position information by setting thedaily-living area as the search scope when the present position of thevehicle is within the daily-living area of the user, and setting thenon-daily-living area as the search scope when the present position ofthe vehicle is within the non-daily-living area of the user.

According to the above configuration, by taking the present position ofthe user into consideration, the system provides the information thatwell matches a life style. Therefore, it is possible to more efficientlyrestrict unwanted information (noise) from being provided to the userand it is possible to more surely provide useful information to theuser.

In some cases, it is possible provide highly-useful information to theuser if the search scope is switched in the daily living area and thenon-daily living area not only straightforwardly based on the presentposition of the vehicle but also further based on exception conditions.For example, the information providing system may be configured asfollows. The in-vehicle apparatus creates exception information if aprescribed exception condition is satisfied, and transmits the vehiclesource information including the exception information to the managementapparatus. When the exception information is contained in the vehiclesource information transmitted form the in-vehicle apparatus, themanagement apparatus incorporates the non-daily-living area of the userin the search scope even if the present position of the vehicle iswithin the daily-living area of the vehicle.

More specifically, the in-vehicle apparatus may calculate a travel routeof the vehicle from a departure point to a destination point, and thein-vehicle apparatus may create the exception information if thedestination point of the travel route, where the vehicle is traveling,is a home of the user.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to providenon-daily information to the user when the user is going back to homefrom a work place for example. Therefore, it is possible toadvantageously relax his or her excessive stress of the user.Alternatively, the information providing system may be configured asfollows. The in-vehicle apparatus creates the exception information ifthe destination point of the travel route, where the vehicle istraveling, is within the non-daily-living area of the user.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to providenon-daily information to the user in an early stage when the user isgoing for an outing for example. It is possible to provide much moreuseful information taking the destination point into consideration.

Alternatively, the information providing system may be configured asfollows. The in-vehicle apparatus creates the exception information ifthe acquisition date and time of the present position information showsa holiday (e.g., Saturday, Sunday, public holiday, summer vacationseason, around new-year day) or a day before the holiday.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to providenon-daily information to the user when the user is driving the vehicleon Friday within the living area of the user. This may generate anouting motivation of the user, such as trip motivation and the like, andmay make it easier for the user to make his or her weekend plan.

The above information providing system may be configured to include acellular phone that is carried by the user of the in-vehicle apparatusso as to be communicatable with the in-vehicle apparatus.

More specifically, the cellular phone transmits function historyinformation to the in-vehicle apparatus. The function historyinformation indicates a time and date of usage of an additional functionof the cellular phone and a time period of the usage of the additionalfunction of the cellular phone. The additional function comprises all offunctions of the cellular phone except a telephone call function, a mailfunction, a browser function and one or more prescribed applicationfunctions. The in-vehicle apparatus creates the exception informationif: the in-vehicle apparatus receives the function history informationfrom the cellular phone; and the received function history informationindicates that the time period of the usage of the additional functionwithin a given period of time prior to boarding the vehicle is longerthan a preset threshold time period.

It is conceivable that a long time period of the usage of the additionalfunction of the cellular phone suggests that the user has arelatively-degree of mental leeway. Thus, in the above case, if arelatively large amount of information is provided to the user, this isnot an excessive load of the user. As can be seen, according to theabove configuration, it is possible to provide information in line witha degree of the mental leeway of the user.

As described above, since it is important to provide information to theuser in consideration of the load of the user, the information providingsystem may be configured in the following way for example. Thefacility-event information of each facility or event comprises multiplehierarchized information elements different in information amount fromeach other. The in-vehicle apparatus includes a reception informationstorage, a user condition estimation unit, a hierarchized informationextraction unit, and an information display unit. The receptioninformation storage stores therein the facility-event information inresponse to receiving the facility-event information from the managementapparatus. The user condition estimation unit estimates a load conditionof the user at a time when the user is driving the vehicle. Thehierarchized information extraction unit extracts, from the receptioninformation storage, one or ones of the hierarchized informationelements whose information amount matches the load condition estimatedby the user condition estimation unit. The information display unitdisplays at least one of the hierarchized information elements, the atleast one being included in the one or ones of the hierarchizedinformation elements extracted by the hierarchized informationextraction unit.

According to the above configuration, when the load of the user drivingthe vehicle is small, a relative large amount of information is providedto the user. In contrast, when the load of the user driving the vehicleis large, a relative small amount of information is provided to theuser. In this way, it is possible to provide information to the user inconsideration of the load of the user.

For example, the hierarchized information elements included in thefacility-event information may be label information, headlineinformation and detail information, respectively. The information amountof the label information is relatively smaller than that of the headlineinformation and the detail information. The information amount of theheadline information is larger than that of the label information. Theinformation amount of the detail information is larger than that of theheadline information. The in-vehicle apparatus further includes anoperation amount detection unit that detects an amount of operation thatthe user performs in relation to driving the vehicle. The user conditionestimation unit estimates the load condition of the user based on theamount of operation detected by the operation amount detection unit. Thehierarchized information extraction unit extracts the label informationwhen the detected amount of operation is greater than a preset thresholdamount. The hierarchized information extraction unit extracts theheadline information when the detected amount of operation is notgreater than the preset threshold amount.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to switch displayof information depending on the load of the actual user's drivingoperation. For example, when the load of the user is large, the labelinformation is displayed. When the load of the user is small, theheadline information is displayed. Therefore, an amount of informant tobe provided user can reliably reflect the load of the user.

Alternatively, the in-vehicle information providing system may beconfigured as follows. The in-vehicle apparatus includes an activationdegree detection unit that detects an activation degree indicatingactiveness of sympathetic nervous of the user. The user conditionestimation unit estimates the load condition of the user based on theactivation degree detected by the activation degree detection unit. Thehierarchized information extraction unit extracts the label informationwhen the detected activation degree is less than a first presetthreshold degree. The hierarchized information extraction unit extractsthe headline information when the detected activation degree is greaterthan or equal to the first preset threshold degree.

According the above configuration, it is possible to switch display ofinformation depending on neuroscience-related load(brain-science-related load) on the user, which may not be measured froman aspect of the actual driving operation. For example, when the load ofthe user is large, the label information is displayed. When the load ofthe user is small, the headline information is displayed. Therefore, itis possible to provide information to the user in a fine arrangementmanner by taking into account a user's brain activity state.

Specifically, the activation degree may be a degree of increase inbiological value of the user from a preset reference value of the user.The biological value of the user includes at least one of blink rate ofthe user, breathing rate of the user, heart rate of the user, andelectrocardiographic value of the user.

That is, since the above degree of increase is based on an action and areaction depending on the sympathetic nerve and the parasympatheticnerve, the above degree of increase can be detected relatively easily.Moreover, the above degree of increase can be used as an indicator(barometer) indicating that the sympathetic nerve is working inpredominance more than the parasympathetic nerve.

Alternatively, the in-vehicle information providing system may beconfigured as follows. The in-vehicle apparatus includes a pleasantdegree estimation unit that estimates a pleasant degree of the userindicating a part of emotion of the user. The user condition estimationunit estimates the load condition of the user based on the pleasantdegree estimated by the pleasant degree estimation unit. Thehierarchized information extraction unit extracts the label informationwhen the pleasant degree is less than a second preset threshold degree.The hierarchized information extraction unit extracts the headlineinformation when the pleasant degree is greater than or equal to thesecond preset threshold degree. More specifically, the pleasant degreeestimation unit may set the pleasant degree higher than the secondpreset threshold degree when then pleasant degree estimation unitrecognizes at least one of the followings: direction of eyes of the userpoints to the information display unit more than a predetermined timeperiod; pupil of the user is enlarged; and speech uttered by the usershows a preset waveform pattern.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to switch displayof information depending on the mental load of the user, which may notbe measured from an aspect of the actual driving operation. For example,when the mental load of the user is large, the label information isdisplayed. When the mental load of the user is small, the headlineinformation is displayed. Therefore, it is possible to provideinformation to the user in a fine arrangement manner by taking intoaccount a user's mental state. Emotion of the user can be estimatedbased on an action or reaction caused by his or her brain. Inparticular, from the direction of eyes or the pupil, it is possible toestimate whether the user is having an interest. From the utteredspeech, it is possible to estimate whether the user is having a positiveimpression. When the user is having the interest or positive impression,a pleasant degree is high. That is, since a change in direction of eyes,pupil or uttered speech can be relatively easily recognized, thepleasant degree can be advantageously estimated using such changes.

As for the in-vehicle apparatus, the information display unit maydisplay the label information or the headline information in such mannerthat the label information or the headline information is switchableinto the detail information. According to this configuration, it ispossible to display the facility-event information so as to increase theinformation amount of the facility-event information that the user ishaving the interest in, in response to, for example, user's inputmanipulation.

As for the facility-event information, improvement of convenience isachievable if the facility-even information of the facilities or eventsis stored in the database while being classified in multiple prescribedattribute groups. In view of this, the above information providingsystem may be configured as follows. The in-vehicle apparatus transmitsstay information to the management apparatus. The stay informationindicates a vehicle-parked facility or event where the vehicle isparked. The management apparatus extracts a specific piece of thefacility-event information, which specific piece is classified as one ofthe prescribed attribute groups that has an attribute in common with thevehicle-parked facility or event indicated by the stay information, fromthe database based on the stay information received from the in-vehicleapparatus.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to provide avariety of information relating to things by which the user is intriguedso as to actually go there. As a result, it is possible to provideinformation to the user by pinpointing the information that is mostlikely used by the user.

As the prescribed attribute groups, the facility-event information ofthe facilities or events is classified in: a physical use group mainlyassociated with physical use; a mental use group mainly associated withmental use; a physical rest group mainly associated with physical rest;and a mental rest group mainly associated with mental rest. For example,the physical use group may include information associated with varioussports. The physical rest group may include information associated withmeal or hot spring. The mental rest group may include informationassociated with music listening.

When the variety of information is provided to the user, the system mayprovide the information to the user while weighting respective attributegroups in a manner as to reflect interest levels of the user.Alternatively, the system may provide the information to the user whilechanging information providing priorities. For example, the informationproviding system may be configured as follows. The in-vehicle apparatustransmits the vehicle source information so that any of the vehiclesource information includes a vehicle ID for identification of thevehicle. The stay information includes staying time information, whichindicates a staying time of the user at the vehicle-parked facility orevent where the vehicle is parked. In response to receiving the stayinformation from the in-vehicle apparatus, the management apparatus (i)records the stay information in a management table that is preset foreach vehicle ID, (ii) sets a weighting factor of each attribute groupaccording to the staying time indicated in the staying time informationstored in the management table, and (iii) determines an extraction ratioof the facility-event information from the database according to theweighting factor.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to provideinformation to the user while reflecting the interest level of the user,which cannot be measured from only the user stay count. As a result, itis possible to provide information to the user in a well-balanced mannerwhile appropriately reading a balance of levels of user's potentialinterests in respective attribute groups.

The above information providing system may be configured to furtherinclude a cellular phone that is carried by the user and iscommunicatable with the management apparatus. The system may use thecellular phone to take objects in which the user has interests.Specifically, the cellular phone extracts a keyword from a speech in atelephone call and a search word inputted in the cellular phone from theuser, and transmits user information to the management apparatus. Thetransmitted user information is based on the extracted keyword andincludes a user ID for identification of the user. In response toreceiving the user information from the cellular phone, the managementapparatus (i) records the user information in the management tablecorresponding to the vehicle ID pre-registered in association with theuser ID, and (ii) extracts, from the database, the facility-eventinformation that is classified as one of the attribute groups, the onehaving an attribute in common with the keyword.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to relativelyeasily identify user's interests. Thereby, it is possible to provide theinformation to the user while weighting respective attribute groups in amanner as to reflect interest levels of the user, and it is possible toprovide the information to the user while changing information providingpriorities.

More specifically, the cellular phone may set the keyword as a pleasantkeyword when the keyword extracted from the speech in the telephoneshows a preset waveform pattern indicating a high pleasant degree. Thecellular phone may transmit the user information including the pleasantkeyword to the management apparatus. To the in-vehicle apparatus, themanagement apparatus may preferentially transmit the facility-eventinformation that is classified as the one of the attribute groups, theone having the attribute in common with the pleasant keyword.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to identify user'sinterests with high accuracy. Since it is possible to preferentiallyprovide the information associated with the user's interest identifiedwith high accuracy, it is possible to pinpoint the information that isto be provided to the user.

Alternatively, the information providing system may be configured asfollows. The cellular phone sets the keyword as a pleasant keyword whenthe keyword extracted from the speech in the telephone call speech showsa preset waveform pattern indicating a high pleasant degree. Thecellular phone transmits the user information including the pleasantkeyword to the management apparatus. The management apparatus sets theweighting factor of each attribute group according a count of pleasantkeywords in the management table.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to estimate abalance of levels of user's potential interests in respective attributegroups with high accuracy. Thereby, it is possible to more appropriatelyprovide a variety of information to the user in a well-balance manner inline with user's preferences.

In order to provide information better matching user's preferences, theabove information providing system may be configured to use the cellularphone in, for example, the following way. The facility-event informationincludes phone-source information, which is provided from the cellularphone. The database stores each user ID of a provider of thefacility-event information while associating the each user ID with thefacility-event information provided by the provider having the each userID. Other party in the telephone call at extraction of the pleasantkeyword is set as a values-sharing person by the cellular phone. Thecellular phone transmits the user information including information foridentification of the values-sharing person to the management apparatus.Based on the user information received from the cellular phone, themanagement apparatus extracts, from the database, the facility-eventinformation suited for the values-sharing person if the values-sharingperson is stored in the database as the provider of the facility-eventinformation. To the in-vehicle apparatus, the management apparatuspreferentially transmits the extracted facility-event information, whichis suited for the values-sharing person.

In many cases, information supposed to match user's preferences overlapsa facility or event that the values-sharing person likes. Thus,information from the values-sharing person can be much more reliablethan information given anonymously from someone whose age or environmentis unknown. Therefore, preferences and review (rating) of thevalues-sharing person, who shares values with the user, are put ahead.In line with the preferences and review (rating) of the values-sharingperson, information much more useful to the user can be preferentiallyprovided to the user.

The above information providing system may be configured as follows. Tothe management apparatus, the cellular phone transmits the userinformation including an amount of payment for a commercial product whenthe commercial product is associated with the keyword and when thecellular phone is used to settle the payment for the commercial product.The management apparatus sets the weighting factor of each attributegroup according the amount of payment.

According to the above configuration also, it is possible to estimate abalances of the interest levels with high accuracy. Thereby, it ispossible to provide a variety of information in amore-appropriately-balanced manner in line with the user's preferences.

It may be preferable that the management apparatus transmits thefacility-event information to the in-vehicle apparatus at apredetermined time which takes into account season and hours of day. Forexample, to the management apparatus, the cellular phone may transmitthe user information including a date and hours when the keyword wasextracted. The management apparatus may record the date and hours whenthe keyword was extracted in the management table in conjunction withthe keyword. The management apparatus may transmit a specific piece ofthe facility information, which specific piece is classified as one ofthe attribute groups that has the attribute in common with the keyword,to the in-vehicle apparatus at a specific season that bases the date andhours when the keyword was extracted.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to previouslyrecord and store user's interests that can vary from season to season.Therefore, at the same season of every year, it is possible to providethe suitable information to the user at an early stage.

Alternatively, the above information providing system may be configuredas follows. The cellular phone transmits the user information includinga time of day of extraction of the keyword to the management apparatus.The management apparatus transmits a specific piece of the facilityinformation, which specific piece is classified as one of the attributegroups that has the attribute in common with the keyword, to thein-vehicle apparatus at a specific time of day that corresponds to thetime of day when the keyword was extracted.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to previouslyrecord and store user's interests that can vary from season to season.Therefore, at the same season of every year, it is possible to providethe suitable information to the user at an early stage.

In the above examples of the information providing system, themanagement apparatus plays a role of estimating a living area of theuser. Attentively, the information providing system may be configured sothat the portable apparatus or the in-vehicle apparatus play a role ofestimating a living area of the user in place of the managementapparatus.

For example, an information providing system may be configured asfollows. The information providing system includes a managementapparatus that has a database that stores the facility-event informationof facilities or events while associating the facility-event informationof the facilities or events with respective location data of thefacilities or events. The information providing system further includesa portable device that is communicatable with the management apparatus.The portable apparatus acquires present position information indicatingpresent position of the portable apparatus, transmits position-basedinformation, which is based on the present position information, to themanagement apparatus, and provides, to a user of the portable apparatus,at least some of the facility-event information transmitted from themanagement apparatus. The management apparatus sets, based on theposition-based information transmitted from the portable apparatus, asearch scope parameterized by the location data, extracts thefacility-event information that matches the search scope from thedatabase, and transmits the extracted facility-event information to theportable apparatus. The portable apparatus measures, based on thepresent position information, a movement stop time defined as a periodof time from when movement of the portable apparatus stops to when themovement of the portable apparatus restarts, and sets each place, atwhich the movement stop time exceeds a prescribed staying time, as astay place. The portable apparatus estimates that a living area of theuser is a collective area covering all of the stay places of the user,from respective location date corresponding to the stay places. Theportable apparatus transmits area information, which indicates theestimated living area, to the management apparatus. The managementapparatus sets the living area of the user as the search scope based onthe area information received from the portable apparatus.

Alternatively, an information providing system may be configured asfollows. The information providing system includes a managementapparatus that has a database that stores the facility-event informationof facilities or events while associating the facility-event informationof the facilities or events with respective location data of thefacilities or events. The information providing system further includesan in-vehicle apparatus that is mounted to a vehicle and iscommunicatable with the management apparatus. The in-vehicle apparatusacquires present position information indicating present position of thevehicle, transmits vehicle source information, which is based on thepresent position information, to the management apparatus, and provides,to a user driving the vehicle, at least some of the facility-eventinformation transmitted from the management apparatus. The managementapparatus sets, based on the vehicle source information transmitted fromthe in-vehicle apparatus, a search scope parameterized by the locationdata, extracts the facility-event information that matches the searchscope from the database, and transmits the extracted facility-eventinformation to the in-vehicle apparatus. The in-vehicle apparatusmeasures a parking time of the vehicle. The in-vehicle apparatus setseach place, at which the parking time of the vehicle exceeds aprescribed staying time, a stay place based on the present positioninformation The in-vehicle apparatus estimates that a living area of theuser is a collective area covering all of the stay places of the user,from respective location date corresponding to the stay places. Thein-vehicle apparatus transmits area information indicating the livingarea of the user. The management apparatus sets the living area of theuser as the search scope based on the area information received from thein-vehicle apparatus.

According to the above configurations, it is unnecessary for themanagement apparatus to estimate all of the living areas of individualusers. Therefore, it is possible to remarkably reduce a load of themanagement apparatus.

While the invention has been described above with reference to variousembodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited to the above described embodiments and constructions. Theinvention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalentarrangements.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information providing system for providinginformation about a facility or an event as facility-event information,the information providing system comprising: a management apparatus thatincludes a database, wherein the database stores facility-eventinformations for a plurality of facilities or a plurality of events byassociating the facility-event informations with respective locationdata of the facilities or the events; and an in-vehicle apparatus thatis mounted to a vehicle and communicable with the management apparatus,wherein: the in-vehicle apparatus acquires present position informationindicating present position of the vehicle, transmits vehicle sourceinformation, which is based on the present position information, to themanagement apparatus, and provides a user, who drives the vehicle, withat least one of the facility-event informations transmitted from themanagement apparatus; the management apparatus sets, based on thevehicle source information transmitted from the in-vehicle apparatus, asearch scope parameterized by the location data, extracts thefacility-event informations matching the search scope from the database,and transmits the extracted facility-event informations to thein-vehicle apparatus; the in-vehicle apparatus measures a parking timeof the vehicle, sets a stay place of the user based on the presentposition information and the parking time of the vehicle, wherein thestay place is a place at which the parking time exceeds a prescribedstaying time, and sets a daily-visiting place of the user based on anacquisition date and time of the present position information, whereinthe daily-visiting place is the stay place at which the vehicle isperiodically parked; based on respective location data corresponding tothe stay places and the daily-visiting places, the in-vehicle apparatusestimates that a living area of the user is a collective area coveringall of the stay places of the user is estimates that a daily-living areaof the user is a collective area covering all of the daily-visitingplaces of the user, estimates that a non-daily-living area is the livingarea of the user except the daily-living area, transmit placeinformation indicative of the daily-living area and the non-daily-livingarea to the management apparatus; and the management apparatus acquiresthe present position information from the in-vehicle apparatus, and setsthe search scope based on the present position information and the placeinformation received from the in-vehicle apparatus, by setting thedaily-living area as the search scope when the present position of thevehicle is within the daily-living area of the user, and setting thenon-daily-living area as the search scope when the present position ofthe vehicle is within the non-daily-living area of the user.